Electronically controlled sewing machines of the type using electronic logic to control the sewing instrumentalities, such as for example, the needle means and the feed control means, are in and of themselves known in the art. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,956 issued Dec. 24, 1974 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,745 issued Oct. 5, 1976, both of said patents being assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Machines of this type have gained a relatively rapid and popular acceptance in the marketplace and have many desireable features. Machines having cam controlled feed mechanisms have also been well known in the art, as for example, illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,876 issued July 22, 1971 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,900 issued June 25, 1972, both of said patents also being assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Insofar as feed control mechanisms are concerned, the cam controlled feed type machines have proven to be desireable mechanisms in that they are relatively durable and are able to absorb the variable feedback forces generated by fabrics of different thickness and density which may be sewn on the machine and which forces may in and of themselves have an effect on the operation of the feed mechanisms. Also, with respect to the aforementioned cam controlled feed type machines, the feature of being able to manually select some feeding features is desireable while the manual selection of other features, such as for sewing buttonholes, has been relatively complicated for the operator.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sewing machine in which the feed may be manually controlled for certain fabric feeding operations, such as for altering stitch length and initiating reverse feed, while other feed characteristics will be automatically controlled for certain feed patterns in combination with automatically controlled bight or needle patterns. It is another object of the invention to provide a durable feed control mechanism in an electronically controlled sewing machine.